Excerpts from the CNT:

a. The Father’s House

Chapter fourteen unveils that Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God is the Father’s house. The Father’s house signifies the mingling of the Triune God with His redeemed people; this is the mutual abode where God dwells in man and man dwells in God (vv. 2, 20, 23).

(1) Enlarged with His Believers to Be God’s Fullness

The Father’s house is Christ enlarged with His believers to be God’s fullness (the Body of Christ as God’s full expression) through His going—His death, and in His coming—His resurrection (Eph. 3:19b). In John 14:2 and 3 the Lord Jesus told His disciples, “In My Father’s house are many abodes; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you to Myself, so that where I am you also may be.” According to 2:16, My Father’s house in [2912] 14:2 refers to the temple, the body of Christ, as God’s dwelling place. At first the Father’s house as God’s dwelling place was only the individual body of Christ (2:16, 21). But through Christ’s death and resurrection, the body of Christ has increased to be His corporate Body, which is the church, including all His believers, who have been regenerated through His resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3). In Christ’s resurrection the church is the Body of Christ, which is the house of God (1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Pet. 2:5; Heb. 3:6), God’s habitation (Eph. 2:21-22), God’s temple.

Furthermore, the many abodes in John 14:2 are the many members of the Body of Christ (v. 23; Rom. 12:5), which is God’s temple (1 Cor. 3:16-17). The Father’s house is the resurrected temple—Christ raised up with His members, His believers (John 2:19-21). According to Ephesians 2:6 and 1 Peter 1:3, we, the members of Christ, have been raised up with Him. As members of the Body of Christ raised up with Him, all the believers in Christ are the abodes, the rooms, in the Father’s house. Hence, the Father’s house is Christ enlarged with His believers to be God’s fullness, the Body of Christ as the full expression of God.

(a) Through His Going—His Death

It was through His death and in His resurrection that Christ was enlarged with His believers to be the Father’s house—a mutual abode where God abides in man and man abides in God. Speaking of His death, the Lord said in John 14:2, “I go to prepare a place for you.” The Lord’s going was to pave the way for man to be in God, that is, to bring man into God for the building of His dwelling place. For man to allow God to dwell in him, man must firstly get into Him. If man does not get into God, God will not get into man. Once man dwells in God, then God will dwell in man. But between man and God there were many obstacles, such as sin, sins, death, the world, the flesh, the self, the old man, and Satan. For the Lord to bring man into God, He had to solve all these problems. Therefore, He had to go to the cross to accomplish redemption that He might open the way and make a standing for man, that man might enter into God. This standing in [2913] God, being enlarged, becomes the standing in the Body of Christ. Anyone who does not have a standing, a place, in God does not have a place in the Body of Christ, which is God’s dwelling place. Hence, His death—His going in order to accomplish His redemption—was to prepare a place in His Body (the Father’s house) for the disciples.

(b) In His Coming—His Resurrection

Christ as the Father’s house—the mutual abode of God and man—was enlarged with His believers to be God’s full expression not only through His going—His death, but also in His coming—His resurrection. Speaking of His resurrection, the Lord said in verse 3, “I am coming again.” This word refers to Christ in His resurrection coming to His disciples. This thought corresponds to the Lord’s words to the disciples in verse 18: “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.” This coming was fulfilled on the day of His resurrection (20:19-22). After His resurrection the Lord came back to His disciples to be with them forever, thus not leaving them as orphans. Furthermore, in John 14:3, the Lord told the disciples, “I am coming again and will receive you to Myself.” In receiving the disciples to Himself, the Lord put them into Himself. This is indicated by verse 20 where the Lord spoke to the disciples regarding the day of resurrection: “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” In verse 3 the Lord also said that He would receive us to Himself that “where I am you also may be.” The Lord is in the Father (vv. 10-11). He wanted His disciples also to be in the Father, as revealed in 17:21. Through His death and resurrection He brought His disciples into Himself. Since He is in the Father, they are in the Father by being in Him. Hence, where He is, the disciples are also. Therefore, the Lord’s resurrection was a further step of coming into us to enlarge the Father’s house, a mutual abode of God and man.

It was through death and in resurrection that Christ built the Father’s house. The Gospel of John reveals that the Triune God is dispensing Himself into us, working Himself into us, by way of Christ the Son’s death and resurrection. The Lord Jesus indicated this in chapter two when He said to [2914] the Jewish leaders, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (v. 19). The phrase, in three days means “in resurrection.” Thus, here the Lord is saying that He would build up the temple, the Father’s house, in resurrection. Apart from the death and resurrection of Christ, there is neither a way for us to enter into God nor a place for us in God. The Lord Jesus died for His believers and was raised up with them. Now based on His death and resurrection, He is working on them to build them up into one Body, and this Body is the church, the house of the living God (1 Tim. 3:15).

Christ as the Father’s house is a mutual abode, an abode for both God and us. However, if we would not be built up through Christ’s death and resurrection so that God can dwell in us, we shall be short of the experience of God as our dwelling place. We need to be built up through Christ’s death and resurrection so that God can dwell in us. When we are built up in this way, we become an abode to God. When God dwells in us, He becomes our dwelling place. This is our abode. Furthermore, this means that we and God, God and we, are mingled together to become one abode, a mutual abode. God abides in us, and we abide in God—a mutual abiding. Christ as the Father’s house is thus a sign signifying the mingling of God with His people. Therefore, we should be built up through Christ’s death and resurrection so that we and God can be mingled together to become a mutual abode, the Father’s house.

(2) The Way to Enter into the Father’s House

John 14:4-6 reveals that Christ is the way for man to enter into the Father’s house, that is, for man to get into the Father. In verse 4 the Lord Jesus said to the disciples, “And where I am going you know the way.” In verse 5 Thomas said to the Lord, “Lord, we do not know where You are going; how can we know the way?” We 

should note that these two verses speak of the words where and way. According to verse 6, Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” This verse reveals that Christ the Son is the way and that the Father is the “where” (destination). Therefore, both the way and the where [2915] are living persons; Christ the Son, the living person, is the way, and the Father, the living person, is the destination. Through Christ the Son we get into the Father. To take the Lord Jesus as the way means that when we walk in Jesus as the way, we arrive at the destination, which is the Father. Hence, we take Jesus as the way, and we reach the Father as the place.

(a) The Way for Man to Get into God

Christ is the way for man to get into God. Since the way is a living person, the place to which the Lord brings us must also be a living person, God the Father Himself. The Lord Himself is the living way to bring man into God the Father, the living place. Although the disciples thought that both the place and the way were places, not persons, the Lord said to them, “I am the way.”

Moreover, Christ as the way signifies the incarnated God with all that He is and all that He has done. The Father is holy, dwelling in unapproachable light, and we are sinful. We are also involved with sin, the world, Satan, and other negative things, all of which are obstacles that make access to the Father impossible. Yet through His death on the cross, the Lord Jesus dealt with sin, the world, Satan, and other negative things, thus clearing away all the obstacles between us and God. By taking away sin, judging the world, destroying Satan, terminating the old creation, and dealing with all other negative things, Christ has cleared the path, and now He Himself becomes our way into the Father. We simply need to enter into Jesus, and He will transport us to the Father. He is the way for us to enter into the Father. The only way to go to the Father and contact Him is through the Lord Jesus. Christ, and Christ alone, is the way into the Father.

If we want to contact God, we simply need to say, “O Lord Jesus.” By calling on the name of the Lord, we are immediately taken to the Father and brought into Him to enjoy Him. We also know that God is in us, that we are in Him, and that we are one with God. This is a fact, and this is our experience. As Christians we can testify that we have God, that we enjoy God, and God enjoys us. We can enjoy God so much through [2916] the Lord Jesus as the way. The Lord has taken away sin, He has judged the world, He has destroyed Satan, and He has terminated the old creation. Now everything is clear, and there are no longer any obstacles between us and God. When we call on the Lord, we are immediately in the presence of God. We experience the fact that God is in us and that we are one with God. Then God becomes our enjoyment.

The way by which we enter into the Father is the crucified Jesus and resurrected Christ with His redemption (vv. 2b-3; Heb. 10:19). According to Hebrews 10:20, the Lord Jesus as our way into the Father is a new and living way: “Which entrance He initiated for us as a new and living way through the veil, that is, His flesh.” Ephesians 2:18 says, “Through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father.” This verse indicates that through Christ as the way we have access in the Spirit unto the Father. When we call, “O Lord Jesus,” we have the sense that we are in the presence of God and that God is within us. Today the Triune God is the life-giving Spirit. Actually, Christ as this life-giving Spirit is the access for us to touch God and enter into Him.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son, is the way to the Father. Simply by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus, we are brought by Him and in Him into the Father. When we get into Christ as the way, we arrive at the Father as our destination, because the Son is one with the Father. Therefore, to be in the Son is also to be in the Father. Once we are in Christ Jesus, there is no longer any distance between us and God. Because we are in Christ, we are immediately brought into the Father. We in the Lord’s recovery can testify that this is not a mere doctrine—it is a spiritual fact. From experience we can testify that when we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we are immediately in the Triune God in an experiential way. The Lord Jesus is the way for us to enter into the Father.

(b) The Reality to Make the Way Real for Us

In John 14:6 the Lord Jesus also said that He is the reality. The way needs the reality; the way without the reality means vanity. Unless the Lord is our reality, He can never be our way. Apart from the Triune God, the entire universe is [2917] vanity, having no content, no reality. The Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—is the reality. The reality is all that God is, which becomes the person of Christ. Christ is the reality of the divine things. This reality came through Him and becomes the realization of God to us. If we were to call on a name other than that of the Lord Jesus, we would not have a way into God, because all other names are void of reality. When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we are immediately on the way into God because the Lord is the embodiment of the Triune God, who is the unique reality in the universe. Therefore, when we call on the name of Jesus, we receive something real into us.

The reality we receive by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus is the being and the doing of the Triune God. First, this reality is the incarnated God (1:1, 14). This reality is also the Son (8:32, 36) and the Spirit (14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 1 John 5:7). Hence, the reality is the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Furthermore, this reality includes what the Triune God has done. The reality is whatever the Triune God has accomplished. This is the gospel (Eph. 1:13). The reality, therefore, is the very being of the Triune God and what He has done.

In the universe only what God is and what God does is real. This means that the reality in the universe is God’s being and God’s doing. God’s being is in the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and His doing is redemption. In the gospel He is everything and has done everything necessary for us to contact Him. When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we receive this universal reality.

The reality is actually the way, and the way is the destination. When we get on the way, we reach the destination. This means that when we receive Jesus, we have the Father. When we receive Christ the Son as the way, we have the Father as the destination. Because Christ the Son is the embodiment of the Father, when we call on the name of the Lord, we have both the Son and the Father. This is the reality becoming the way. This is Christ the Son with what He has done becoming our way into the Father. When we call on the Lord’s name, we get on this way and we have the Father. [2918]

(c) The Life to Bring Us the Reality

In John 14:6, the Lord Jesus went on to say that He is the life. The reality needs life. If it is a dead reality, it is still vanity. It must be a living reality. The Lord Jesus is life to us. Christ as this life brings us the reality, and the reality becomes the way for us to enter into the Father. Firstly Christ is our life. Then this life brings us all the reality of the Godhead. Eventually, this reality of the Godhead is the way for us to get into the Father. When the Lord is life to us, then we have the reality. When the Lord is our reality, then we have the way for us to get into the Father. If the Lord is going to be our way, He must be our reality, and if He is going to be our reality, He must be our life. By having Him as life, we have Him as our reality, and by having Him as our reality, we have Him as our way into the Father. The Lord Himself is the way, this way is the reality, and the reality is in the life.

Reality is the divine life, and the divine life, which is eternal life, is the Triune God. When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, the Triune God comes into us to be our life. Therefore, the life in 14:6 signifies the Triune God within us (Eph. 4:18; Col. 3:4a; Rom. 8:2a, 6b). When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we experience the Triune God within us as life. In other words, when we call on the Lord Jesus, we sense that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are in us. We have something living, moving, and acting within us. This is the Triune God within us as the divine life. This life brings us the reality, and the reality is the way for us to enter into God. When we are on the way—Christ the Son, we are also at the destination—God the Father.

In John 14:6, the Lord Jesus clearly said, “I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” Because Christ is the way, the reality, and the life, when we have Him, we have the life, the reality, and the way. Life is the divine element of the person of Christ. If we have Christ, we possess the divine element, which is His divine constitution of all the attributes of what God is. In regeneration we have received this life, and in the growth of the divine life through sanctification, renewing, and transformation, we [2919] participate in the reality of Christ, which is the way for us to enter into the Father’s house as the Body of Christ, which is the Father’s house that consummates the New Jerusalem.

(3) The Expression of the Father Realized as the Spirit

In John 14:7-26, Christ who is the Father’s house is also revealed as the expression of the Father realized as the Spirit. This chapter unfolds that the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—is dispensing Himself into His believers in Jesus Christ. In the dispensing of Himself into us, God is triune. He is one, yet He is three—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Christ the Son is the embodiment and expression of the Father (vv. 7-11), and the Spirit is the reality and realization of the Son (vv. 17-20). In the Son the Father is expressed and seen (the Son is even called the Father—Isa. 9:6), and as the Spirit the Son is revealed and realized (2 Cor. 3:17). The Father in the Son is expressed among the believers, and the Son as the Spirit is realized in the believers. God the Father is hidden, God the Son is manifested among men, and God the Spirit enters into man to be his life, his life supply, and his everything. Hence, this Triune God—the Father in the Son and the Son as the Spirit—dispenses Himself into us to be our portion that we may enjoy Him as our everything in His Divine Trinity.

(a) Coinhering with the Father

John 14:7-11 unveils that as the expression of the Father, Christ the Son coinheres with the Father. In studying the deep truths concerning the Trinity, we may use three particular [2922] words: the verb coinhere, the noun coinherence, and the adjective coinherent. The Son not only coexists with the Father but also coinheres with the Father. What is the difference between coexisting and coinhering? To coexist is to exist together at the same time. To coinhere is to exist in one another, to dwell in one another. To say that the Father and the Son coexist means that They exist together, but to say that the Father and the Son coinhere means that They dwell in one another.

We have a word concerning this coinherence in John 14:10a: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?” Here we have the mutual indwelling of the Father and the Son. In verse 11 the Lord goes on to say, “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” The Lord says that the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son. What a mystery this is! The Father dwells in the Son, and the Son dwells in the Father. When the Son was living on this earth, His living was a mutual abiding. He was abiding in the Father, and the Father was abiding in Him.

The New Testament says not only that Christ the Son and the Father are with each other, but also reveals that the Son and the Father coinhere. For the Son to be coinherent with the Father means that the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son. John 17:21 is another verse that reveals this coinherence: “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us.” The Son and the Father coexist in the way of coinherence. This means that while they coexist, the Father exists in the Son and the Son exists in the Father.

It is easy to see the matter of coexistence, but it is much more difficult to realize the matter of coinherence. The coexistence of the Son and the Father means that They exist together. The coinherence of the Son and the Father means that the Son is in the Father and that the Father is in the Son. Because of this coinherence of the Father and the Son, we may say that the Father and the Son are two-one.

As One who coinheres with the Father, Christ the Son also works with the Father. In John 14:10, the Lord says, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? [2923] The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works.” Here we see that the Son speaks and the Father works. The Son’s speaking is the Father’s working. Everything that the Son does is in coordination with the Father who abides and works in Him for the accomplishment of His economy. Since the Father is in the Son, when the Son speaks, the Father, who abides in the Son, does His work. The Father does His work in the Son’s speaking because They are in one another.

Since Christ the Son coinheres with the Father, to see the Son is to see the Father. The Son did not express Himself; He expressed only the Father (vv. 7-9). Christ was the Son, yet He expressed the Father. Because the Son expresses not Himself but the Father, the Son’s expression is the Father’s expression. Therefore, when we see the Son, we see the Father. This is proved by the exchange between the Lord Jesus and Philip in John 14. In verse 7 the Lord Jesus pointed out to the disciples that if they had known Him, they would have known His Father also. Then He said, “Henceforth you know Him and have seen Him.” However, Philip replied, “Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us” (v. 8). To this the Lord Jesus answered, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how is it that you say, Show us the Father?” (v. 9). In the Son the Father is expressed and seen, for the Son is the expression of the Father. If we have seen the Son, we have seen the Father because the Father is embodied in the Son to be expressed through Him.

The Son’s coinhering with the Father is not for doctrine. Rather, this coinherence is for our experience of God’s dispensing. Christ the Son coinheres with the Father so that He with the Father may be dispensed into our being.

(b) Realized as the Spirit

John 14:16-20 reveals that Christ as the expression of the Father is realized as the Spirit. The Father is embodied and expressed in the Son among the believers, and Christ the Son is realized as the Spirit entering into and abiding in the believers. In order to abide in us, the Lord had to be transfigured, transformed, from the flesh into the Spirit. He came in [2924] the flesh to be among us, but He had to be transfigured into the Spirit before He could come into us. How was the Lord transfigured? He was transfigured from the flesh into the Spirit by His death and resurrection.

Christ realized as the Spirit is another Comforter. In verse 16 the Lord said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever.” This verse shows that the Spirit is “another Comforter.” The Greek word for “Comforter,” paracletos (anglicized “paraclete”), means “advocate,” “one alongside who takes care of our case, our affairs, and all of our needs.” The Greek word for “Comforter” is the same as that for “Advocate” in 1 John 2:1. Today we have the Lord Jesus both in the heavens as well as the Spirit within us as our Paraclete taking care of our case. The Holy Spirit, the reality of Jesus and the realization of the Lord, is such a One who is alongside us, ministering to us and taking care of all of our needs.

Christ realized as this Spirit, this Comforter, is the Spirit of reality. In John 14:17, the Lord said, “Even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you.” He is the Spirit of reality because whatever the Father in the Son is and whatever the Son is, are realized in the Spirit. The Spirit is the realization of what God the Father and God the Son are. God the Father is light, and God the Son is life. The reality of this life and light is just the Spirit. If we do not have the Spirit, we cannot have the light of God the Father. If we do not have the Spirit, we cannot have God the Son as our life. The reality of all the divine attributes of both God the Father and God the Son is the Spirit.

Verses 16 and 17 of John 14 also reveal that Christ is realized as the Spirit to be with us and in us. Not only does He abide with the believers (v. 16) but also in them (v. 17). As we have seen, when the Lord was in the flesh, He was only able to be among the disciples, to be with them. But after becoming the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of reality in His resurrection, He is able now to abide not only with us but also in us. It is by being the Spirit that Christ enters into us and abides in us. [2925]

Christ is realized as the Spirit to live with us in resurrection that we may live. This is indicated by the Lord’s words to the disciples in verse 19: “Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live.” This refers to Christ’s resurrection. When the Lord was resurrected, we were resurrected with Him. First Peter 1:3 tells us that Christ regenerated us in His resurrection. In His resurrection we were made alive together with Him. Thus, because He lives in resurrection, we also live, for we were regenerated in His resurrection. By His coming as the Spirit, He enters into us and causes us to live just as He lives. The life He lives is the resurrection life. After His resurrection, He comes to enter into us as the Spirit. So He lives and we live by Him also (Gal. 2:20). He lives by the resurrection life, and we live by Him, sharing Him as the resurrection life.

Christ is realized as the Spirit so that we may realize that He is in the Father, we are in Him, and He is in us. The Lord said in John 14:20, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” The day mentioned in this verse is the day of resurrection. On the day of resurrection the disciples were to know that the Lord was in the Father, that the disciples were in Him, and that He was in them. This is coinherence. As Christ is in the Father, so the disciples are also. Now where He is, there the disciples are also. He died to prepare the way that we might get into God and that God might get into us. Then by being in us and by bringing us into the Father, the Lord can build us together in the Triune God to be His eternal abode.

(c) Coming to Us with the Father and Making an Abode with Us

As the expression of the Father realized as the Spirit, Christ comes to us with the Father and makes an abode with us (vv. 21-23). In verse 23, the Lord said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” According to this verse, the Triune God in Christ comes to the believer to make a mutual abode with him. The abode mentioned in [2926] verse 23 is one of the many abodes found in verse 2. It will be a mutual abode, in which the Triune God abides in the believers and the believers abide in Him. We should not forget that each of us is one of so many abodes in the Father’s house. The Father and the Son take the lover of Jesus as Their abode. The Father and the Son come to the believer to make an abode with him that he and They may have an abiding place. The believer will be Their abode and They shall be his abode. This verse is the basis of 15:4-5: “Abide in Me and I in you.” Most Christians do not realize that the basis of 15:4-5 is 14:23, where we have the mutual abode made by the appearing of the Father and the Son as the Spirit to the believer who loves Him. In other words, this abode is prepared by the visitation of the Triune God. When the Triune God grants us a visit, His visitation makes us His abode and it makes Him our abode. Eventually, we and He, He and we, become a mutual abode. We will abide in Him, and He will abide in us. In such a situation there is no place for sin, the world, Satan, the old man, or the flesh. All such things have been chased away.

We have had this experience in the past. Deep within us there was a sweet appreciation toward the Lord Jesus, and we told Him that we loved Him. Then the Lord told us that since we loved Him, His commandment was that we should not do this and that. We said amen to the Lord, perhaps even with tears in our eyes. Immediately we had the sense of His manifestation within us. We were so much in His presence. At that time we had the sense that He was filling us up with Himself and that we were being drawn into Him. We were abiding in Him, and He was abiding in us. We were His abode, and He was our abode. We all have had this kind of experience, either in a deep way or in a shallow way, either for a long time or just for a few minutes. We need to have this experience all day long.

The Lord Jesus stirs up our love, and in response we may say, “Lord Jesus, I love You.” The Father responds to our love for the Son, and then the Father and the Son come to us to make an abode in our spirit. Actually, the Father and the Son come to take us over, to possess us. In this way the Father and [2927] the Son settle within us to make an abode with us, that is, to build the Father’s house. This is a great matter. The abode signifies that we human beings may and can become an abode of God. God in Christ desires, longs, to enter into us, possess us, and make us His dwelling place.

From our experience we know that the Father and the Son pay us a constant visitation. In our daily life the Father and the Son often come to visit us. We may be at home, at school, or at work, but wherever we may be, the Father and the Son come to visit us to do a building work in us, making an abode which will be a mutual dwelling place for the Triune God and for us.

(d) Coming to Us as the Holy Spirit Sent by the Father in the Son’s Name

Christ comes to us as the Holy Spirit sent by the Father in the Son’s name. In verse 26 the Lord said, “But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and remind you of all the things which I have said to you.” Here we see that the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, was to be sent by the Father in the Son’s name. Therefore, the Holy Spirit comes not only from the Father but also by the Son. Thus, the Holy Spirit comes not only from the Father but also from the Son, and He is the reality not only of the Father but also of the Son. Hence, when we call on the name of the Son, we get the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3).

The Holy Spirit is not only sent by the Father but “from with” the Father (John 15:26). In Greek, the preposition translated from is para. This word means “by the side of” and often has the meaning of “from with.” This is seen elsewhere in the Gospel of John, for example, in 6:46: “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except Him who is from God.” The word from in this verse is para in Greek. The sense here is “from with.” The Lord is not only from God but also with God. While He is from God, He is still with God (8:16, 29; 16:27). Likewise, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, is sent “from with” the Father. This means that the Spirit not only comes from the Father but also with the Father. When the Father sends the Spirit, He comes with the Spirit. The Comforter comes from the Father [2928] and with the Father. The Father is the source. When the Spirit comes from the source, it does not mean that He leaves the source but that He comes with the source.

The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, is sent by the Father in the Son’s name. Thus, the Holy Spirit comes in the Son’s name to be the reality of His name. The name is the Son Himself, and the Spirit is the person, the being, of the Son. When we call on the name of the Son, we get the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). The Son came in the Father’s name (5:43) because the Son and the Father are one (10:30). Now the Spirit will come in the Son’s name because the Spirit and the Son also are one (2 Cor. 3:17). Because the Spirit and the Son are one, the Spirit can be sent by the Father as the Son. This interpretation strongly indicates that the Spirit is the Son. The Father’s sending the Spirit in the Son’s name means that the Father sent the Spirit as the Son. This is the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—reaching us eventually as the Spirit.

The Spirit comes in the name of the Son. When we call on the name of Jesus, the Spirit comes. The name of the Son is Jesus, and His person is the Spirit. God the Father sends the Spirit, and the Spirit comes in the name of the Son. Eventually, it is the Triune God who comes. When the Spirit comes to us, the Father also comes. The Son is also here because the Spirit comes with the Father in the name of the Son. The Father sends the Spirit from with Himself, and the Spirit comes in the name of the Son. The Spirit comes as the Son. He is the Son coming, and this Son coming is from with the Father. Therefore, when one comes, all three are present. By calling on the name of the Lord, we may enjoy and experience Christ as the expression of God realized by the Spirit so that Christ the Son would come to us with the Father and make an abode with us.

b. The True Vine

In John 15 we see that Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God is the true vine. In John 15:1 the Lord Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.” Christ the Son as the true vine with the believers as its branches is the organism of the Triune God in God’s economy, the divine dispensing, to grow with His riches and express the divine life. As the organism of the Triune God, this vine is corporate and universal.

John 15 reveals not only Christ the Son as the vine but also the Father as the husbandman, the Body of Christ as the branches of the vine, and God the Spirit as the Spirit of reality. As the vine, Christ the Son is the center. The whole universe is pictured as a vineyard, and centered in this vineyard is the vine, who is the Son. God the Son is the center. Everything is centralized in Him. He, as the vine, is the center of the vineyard. God the Father is the source and founder, and Christ the Son is the center. Everything that God the Father is and has is for the center, is embodied in the center, and is expressed through the center. God the Father is expressed, manifested, and glorified through the vine. Therefore, God the Father is the source and God the Son is the center.

In the last two verses of this chapter the Spirit is revealed. Here God the Spirit is called the Spirit of reality. This means that the Spirit is the reality. Whatever God the Father is in [2930] the Son and whatever He has centralized in Christ the Son will be realized by the Spirit. All that God the Father is in the Son is a reality in God the Spirit. Everything centralized in the Son is revealed, testified, witnessed, and realized by the Spirit of reality. Therefore, God the Father is the source, the founder; Christ the Son is the center, the embodiment, and the manifestation; and God the Spirit is the realization, the reality. This is exceedingly profound and deep.

Moreover, in this revelation there is not only the Triune God but also the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is the church. In this revelation the church is likened to the branches of a vine. The branches of a vine are simply the body of the vine. If the branches are taken away from the vine, the vine will have no body. Without the branches, the vine has nothing remaining except the root and the stem. Hence, the branches are the body of the vine.

(1) With His Believers as the Branches

As the many branches of the vine, the believers of Christ are members of the Christ of God to form the organism of the Triune God in the divine dispensing. In John 15:5 the Lord Jesus declared, “I am the vine; you are the branches.” Such a statement implies that Christ and His believers are one tree. Christ and the believers, the vine with the branches, form the organism of the Triune God in the divine dispensing. The vine in John 15, therefore, is a universal vine comprising Christ and His believers as the branches. In this vine, this organism, the Triune God lives, expresses Himself, and dispenses Himself to the uttermost.

Christ, the infinite God, is the vine, and we are His branches. We are actually branches of the infinite God, organically one with Him. This means that we have been organically joined to the Triune God. Now we are part of God, even as the members of our bodies are parts of us. If we are in the light, we shall see that we are members of Christ, that we are part of Him.

We have become branches of the vine, members of the Christ of God, by the branching out of the vine. By our natural life we are not branches of the vine. On the contrary, by [2931] our fallen nature we are branches of Adam and even branches of the devil. Just as a branch is the branching out of a tree, so when we were born, we were just the branching out of Adam. As branches of Adam, we were also branches of Satan. The wonderful thing is that when we believed in the Lord Jesus, He branched out into us. This branching out has made us branches of this wonderful Christ. Therefore, Christ’s branching out has made us branches of Christ as the vine. Now as branches we are filled with Christ as life, for to be a branch in the vine means that Christ has become our life. We should not say that we do not feel that we are filled with Christ. When the Lord says, “I am the vine; you are the branches,” we have to say a strong amen. Just keep saying, “Hallelujah, I am a branch!” We as branches of the vine will be filled with Christ.

No plant other than the vine can illustrate adequately the living relationship between the believers and Christ. A vine differs from a tree in that it has virtually no trunk. If you cut off the branches of a vine, there is practically nothing left, only the root. It is very significant, therefore, that the Lord Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” The vine is everything to the branches. Whatever is in the vine is also in the branches. This indicates that as the vine Christ is a great enjoyment for us, the branches. From the vine and through the vine, we receive everything we need to live as branches.

As believers, we are branches of the vine and are good for nothing except to express the vine. All that the vine is and has is expressed through the branches. Individually, the branches are the regenerated ones. Corporately, they are the church, the Body of Christ. The branches, the believers in Christ the Son, are for the expression of the Son with the Father through fruit-bearing.

As branches of the vine, we need to abide in the vine, the Christ of God. The Lord Jesus said, “Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (vv. 4-5). Only when the branches abide in the vine can the vine be everything to them. This is the reason the Lord said [2932] concerning Himself as the vine and us as the branches, “Abide in Me and I in you.” Our life and enjoyment are to abide in the vine. Our destiny as branches is to remain in the vine.

Apart from the vine, we, the branches, can do nothing. A branch of a vine cannot live by itself, for it will wither and die apart from the vine. The relationship between the branches and the vine portrays the relationship between us and the Lord Jesus. We are nothing, we have nothing, and we can do nothing apart from Him. What we are, what we have, and what we do must be in the Lord and by the Lord in us. Therefore, it is crucial for us to abide in the Lord and for the Lord to abide in us. We should not do anything in ourselves; we should do everything by abiding in the vine. Christ as the vine is an all-inclusive portion for our daily enjoyment. Because we are branches to the Lord and the Lord is the vine to us, we must abide in Him and let Him abide in us. Then in our experience Christ will be everything to us for our enjoyment.

Abiding in the Christ of God is a crucial matter. Fruit-bearing depends on abiding. Our abiding depends on a clear vision that we are branches in the vine. If we are to abide in the vine, we must see the fact that we are branches in the vine. If we see that we are already in Christ, we shall be able to abide in Him. Therefore, we need to pray, “Lord Jesus, show me clearly that I am a branch in the vine.”

Once we see the fact that we are branches in the vine, we need to maintain the fellowship between us and Christ as the vine. Any insulation will separate us from the rich supply of the vine. A little disobedience, a sin, or even a sinful thought can be the insulation that separates us from the riches of the vine. First, we must see that we are branches. Then we need to maintain the fellowship between us and the Lord. Nothing should be between Him and us. From experience we know that even a small thing can separate us from the rich supply of the vine. Hence, we need to pray, “Lord Jesus, let there be nothing between You and me separating me from Your rich supply.”

As long as we abide in Christ, He will abide in us. His abiding in us depends on our abiding in Him. Our abiding is the condition of His abiding, but His abiding in us is not a [2933] condition of our abiding in Him. With us, however, because we are so fluctuating, there is the need of a condition. If we do not abide in Christ, there is no way for Him to abide in us. Although He does not change, we have many changes. We may abide in Him today and stay away from Him tomorrow. Therefore, His abiding in us depends on our abiding in Him. Our abiding in Him is the condition of His abiding in us. Thus, the Lord said, “Abide in Me and I in you.” If we do not abide in Him, we fail to meet the condition of His abiding in us. His abiding depends on our abiding. This mutual abiding will bring forth fruit.

How good, how miraculous, how wonderful, and how excellent it is that we all are a part of this organism! Christ is this organism, and we are included in this organism. He is the tree, and we are the branches. As far as we, the branches, are concerned, Christ, the tree, lives to be our support, our supply, and our everything. Christ as the tree also does everything through His believers as the branches. Just as the tree needs the branches and cannot do anything apart from the branches, so today Christ as the very embodiment of the Triune God can do nothing without us. In the carrying out of God’s economy—that is, growing a vine tree—without us Christ is unable to act, work, or to have any kind of activity. Without Him we can do nothing, and without us He can do nothing. We surely need Him for the purpose of our enjoying the wonderful, excellent, and marvelous divine life, and He surely needs us for the purpose of fruit-bearing, the multiplication and the enlargement of this divine tree.

(2) The Organism of the Triune God

Christ as the true vine, with His believers as the branches, is the organism of the Triune God. As the branches of the true vine, we are the multiplication of Christ, the duplication of Christ, the spreading of Christ, and the enlargement of Christ. This multiplication, duplication, spreading, and enlargement—the true vine with its branches—is the organism of the Triune God.

Christ as the true vine is an organism full of life, like the tree of life (Gen. 2:9). The true vine is not an organization [2934] without life, like the tower of Babel (Gen. 11:4, 9). The tree of life is an organism, and the tower of Babel is an organization. In contrast to an organization that has no life or organs, the vine tree is an organism that has life with many organs, organic systems, and organic elements growing in it.

Just as our human body, as an organism, functions to contain us, express us, and take action for us, Christ as the organism of the Triune God functions to contain the Triune God and express the Triune God. Furthermore, this organism is the means by which and through which the Triune God can act and move. In particular, Christ as the vine tree is the organism of the Triune God with the divine life for the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. Christ as the true vine dispenses the very Triune God into all the fruit.

(a) The Father as the Husbandman—the Cultivator of the Soil

In John 15 God the Father is revealed as the husbandman who is related to a husbandry, a plantation. This is indicated by the Lord’s words in verse 1: “My Father is the husbandman.” A husbandman is the source, the originator, the founder, and the planter of a husbandry. As such, he engages in an enterprise. The universe is the enterprise of the Father. The Father has a divine plan, an eternal purpose, and He wants to fulfill the intention behind His purpose. This is what is meant by the Father’s being the husbandman. He is the husbandman of the vineyard who plans to carry out a certain purpose. He is the source, the founder, and the first one to accomplish certain things according to His mind and purpose.

It is the Father’s pleasure that all that He is and has become the riches of Christ as the vine. All that the Father is, all that the Father has, all the riches of the Father’s divine life, and all the fullness of the Godhead are in the vine, which is the embodiment of them all. The Father as the husbandman is the source, the author, the planner, the planter, the life, the substance, the soil, the water, the air, the sunshine, and everything to the vine. Therefore, Christ the Son as the vine is the center of God’s economy and the embodiment of all the riches of the Father. The Father, by cultivating the Son, works Himself with all of His riches into this vine, [2935] and eventually the vine expresses the Father through its branches in a corporate way. This is the Father’s economy in the universe.

In the Old Testament the children of Israel were a vine in the sight of God (Psa. 80:8; cf. Isa. 5:2; Jer. 2:21; Ezek. 19:10; 15:2). But Israel failed God as the vine because they did not give Him the opportunity to express Himself through them. Although God tried to express Himself through them, they failed Him. Eventually, the Lord Jesus came as the true vine that can fully express God. This true vine is the embodiment of God and the full manifestation of God. What God is and what God has are embodied in this true vine and are fully expressed through this true vine.

In the universe the Father is a husbandman, a farmer. Farming is God’s economy! Just as a farmer’s economy is farming, growing things, so God’s economy is growing a vine tree, a vine with many branches. Christ is this vine; Christ is God’s economy. This vine, including the branches, is God’s economy. This means that His economy includes us, for we are branches of this vine. The Father is the husbandman, the farmer who cultivates the soil so that the vine may spread.

(b) The Branches Being for the Bearing of Fruit to Express the Riches of the Father’s Life in the Divine Dispensing

In John 15:2-8 we see that the branches in the vine are for the bearing of fruit to express the riches of the Father’s life in the divine dispensing. The believers in Christ are His many branches grafted into Him, the true vine in the universe, to bear much fruit for His enlargement in His spreading, that they might express the Triune God as His organism. The vine and the branches are an organism to glorify the Father. With the vine we have the glorification of the Father through the expression of the riches of the divine life in fruit-bearing. In fruit-bearing the Father’s life is expressed; hence, in fruit-bearing He is glorified. This is the reason the Lord Jesus said, “In this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit” (v. 8).

In John 15:8 the word glorify means to have the intent, content, the inner life, and the inner riches released from [2936] within and expressed. The vine and the branches are an organism to glorify the Father, to have the intent, the content, the inner life, and the inner riches released and expressed from within. As an organism to glorify the Father, the vine and the branches express the riches of the divine life. When the vine tree bears clusters of grapes, the riches of the divine life are expressed. This expression is the glorification of the Father because the Father is the divine life.

The Father is the source and the substance of the vine tree. Apart from the fruit, the essence, substance, and life of the vine tree are concealed, hidden, and confined. However, the riches of the inner life of the vine are expressed in the clusters of fruit. To express the inner life in this way is to release the divine substance from within the vine. When the life of the vine is expressed through the branches in its propagation and multiplication, the Father is glorified, because what the Father is in the riches of His life is expressed in the propagation and multiplication of the vine. This is the glorification of the Father.

Our fruit-bearing is the glorification, the expression, of the Triune God from within. Today the Triune God is within us as our life and nature, and the expression of the life and nature of the Triune God from within us is glory. Therefore, when the divine life with its nature is expressed through us in fruit-bearing, the Father is glorified. Day by day we need to live a life that bears fruit, and in this way we glorify the Father. The more we express the divine life in fruit-bearing, the more the Father is glorified.

Fruit-bearing is also the overflow of the riches of the inner life. Bearing fruit is a matter of the overflow of our inner life. We need continuously to enjoy Christ as everything to us. Then we shall have an abundance of inner life. Out of this abundance of inner life there will be a flow that will reach others, penetrating into their lives. This flow will bear much fruit. This kind of fruit-bearing is the manifestation of the inner life. The inner life of the vine is the riches of all that the Father is and has. This is to be manifested by the fruit-bearing of the vine. Hence, the vine’s fruit-bearing is to express the Father in the Son. [2937]

(c) Through the Spirit of Reality Whom the Son Sent from and with the Father and Who Came to Us from and with the Father

According to John 15:26, the Spirit of reality whom the Son sent from and with the Father testifies concerning the Son as the vine; hence, the Spirit testifies to the branches and through the branches to the world. In 15:26-27 the Lord Jesus said, “But when the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of reality, who proceeds from the Father, He will testify concerning Me; and you testify also, because from the beginning you have been with Me.” This indicates that the Holy Spirit is the reality of all things, and we are to be witnesses of the Spirit of reality.

In these verses the Lord said that He would send to the disciples the Spirit of reality. But in 14:26 the Lord said that the Father would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, in the Son’s name. The Lord has two different ways of speaking about the same thing. First, in 14:26, He says that the Father will send the Spirit; now in 15:26, He says that the Lord Himself will send the Spirit. Then who sent the Spirit—the Father or the Son? We must say that the Spirit was sent by both the Father and the Son. The Father and the Son are one. The Father’s sending is the Son’s sending, and the Son’s sending is the Father’s sending. The two are one. Regardless of who it is who sends the Spirit, the Spirit is always sent with the Father and in the name of the Son. Once again we see the Triune God. When the Spirit comes, He comes with the Father in the Son’s name. So all three of the Godhead are here.

In verse 26 the Lord said that He would send the Comforter from the Father. The Greek preposition translated from in this verse is para. The sense of this preposition in Greek here is “from with.” The Spirit of reality is sent by the Son, not only from the Father but also with the Father. The Comforter comes from the Father and with the Father. The Father is the source. When the Spirit comes from the source, He does not leave the source but comes with the source. This Spirit, sent by the Son coming with the Father, will testify concerning the [2938] Son. Therefore, His testimony concerning the Son is a matter of the Triune God.

This Spirit of reality testifies concerning the Son as the vine, testifying in front of the persecuting religion (vv. 18-25). Furthermore, the Spirit testifies to the branches and through the branches to the world. Religion may persecute, but the Spirit of reality testifies that the Son is the vine. Through the believers as the branches this testimony will go forth throughout the whole world.

The Father is the source of the vine, the Son is the vine, and the Spirit is the life-juice of the vine. This great vine is the organism of the Triune God. All that the Father is, is in this organism, embodied in the vine, which is the second of the Trinity. Within the vine is the circulating life flow of the Spirit. It is the Spirit who carries the riches of the Father to sustain the vine and its branches. This vine into which we have been grafted is the organism of the Triune God.

Christ the Son is the vine, and we are the branches to bear fruit for the glorification of the Father, that is, the expression, spreading, and multiplication of the Father as its source and husbandman. All that God the Father is and has is centralized and embodied in Christ the Son, and all of this is realized in the Spirit of reality. Now all of this has been wrought into us and will be expressed and testified through us. John 15 has four very important items: God the Father as the source and founder, God the Son as the center and manifestation, God the Spirit as the reality and realization, and the branches as the Body, the corporate expression. The branches are vital, for they express what God is in Christ as the Spirit. Without the branches there can be no full expression. The full expression depends upon the branches, the Body, for what God is in Christ the Son and as the Spirit will be expressed by the branches, the Body. All that God the Father is and has is in Christ the Son, all that the Son is and has is realized as the Spirit, and all that the Spirit has is in the Body, in the church, in us. In other words, God the Father as the source is embodied in God the Son as the center who is now realized as God the Spirit as the reality. All that the Spirit has is expressed in [2939] us, that is, in the branches, the church. The Triune God in Christ is expressed, manifested, and glorified in the church.

c. The Newborn Child

In John 16 Christ is presented to us as the newborn child.

(1) Born in His Resurrection to Be the Firstborn Son of God

In His resurrection Christ was born to be the firstborn Son of God (Acts 13:33). In John 16:20-21, the Lord Jesus says to the disciples, “Truly, truly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her hour has come; but when she brings forth the little child, she no longer remembers the affliction because of the joy that a man has been born into the world.” This woman is the whole group of the disciples, the child is Christ, and the birth is resurrection (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5; Rom. 1:4). According to Acts 13:33, the Lord Jesus was born, begotten, in resurrection to be the Son of God with respect to His humanity. The Lord’s resurrection, therefore, was a birth. This means that when Christ was resurrected, He was born.

Although Christ was already the only begotten Son of God, it was still necessary for Him to be born in resurrection as the firstborn Son of God. In eternity Christ was the only begotten Son of God, in incarnation He was born of Mary to be the Son of Man, and in resurrection He had another birth to be the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29b). When Christ was born of Mary, He was born as a man, and His humanity had nothing [2942] to do with His being the only begotten Son of God. In other words, the human part of Jesus was not the Son of God. Therefore, it was necessary for this human part of Him to be born into the divine sonship through resurrection. Hence, Christ’s resurrection was a new birth for Him. In this birth the disciples were the travailing woman. After the Lord’s resurrection this “woman” had a newborn child—the resurrected Christ as the firstborn Son of God—and she rejoiced (John 20:20). In this sense Christ was a child born in resurrection. After His resurrection He was the “child” with the divine life and the human nature with both divinity glorified and humanity “sonized.” The disciples as the mother must have been very happy at the birth of this wonderful child.

(2) With His Believers to Be His Many Brothers

Christ’s being the firstborn Son of God implies that He has many brothers and that He is the Firstborn among these brothers (Rom. 8:29). The birth that took place through Christ’s resurrection involved the birth not only of an individual but of a group, a group that includes the firstborn Son and the many sons of God. This indicates that through one birth, one delivery, many sons were brought forth. This resurrection was the birth of the corporate child—the corporate new man. Thus, 1 Peter 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” God regenerated us through Christ’s resurrection. We, as human beings, were all divinely sonized through His resurrection to be many sons of God to participate in His divine sonship. We are the many brothers of the firstborn Son of God in His resurrection. In resurrection, God begot a Son, Jesus Christ, and in resurrection God regenerated many sons. This shows us that the resurrection of Christ was a great delivery. In that same delivery the Firstborn was Christ, and this firstborn Brother had many “twins” to follow Him. In the unique resurrection Christ was born and we were regenerated; hence, we were His “twins” in the same delivery. This was a universal delivery of a corporate child, which included the Son of God as the Head and His many [2943] brothers as the Body. The firstborn Son of God is the Head, and His many brothers, sons of God, are the members of Christ. Therefore, Christ’s resurrection was the one universally big delivery of Himself as the firstborn Son and the believers as His many brothers, His millions of “twins.”

The birth of a new corporate child comprising Christ and His believers was the birth of the new man (Eph. 2:15). The Christ who returned in His resurrection was the newborn child to be the new man (Col. 3:10-11). The old man was created by God in Genesis 1 and 2, but the new man was born through the death and resurrection of Christ referred to in John 16. We were born into the old man, but we were regenerated into the new man. We should remember that before we were born into the old man, we had been already regenerated into the new man, since we had been regenerated before we were born according to 1 Peter 1:3. We do not need to try, struggle, or endeavor to be a new man. We are already a new man. We were a new man two thousand years ago. We should not look at ourselves. When we look at ourselves, we will see the old man and be disappointed. Rather, all of us should declare, “I am a part of the new man through the wonderful death and resurrection of the Son of God.” Through His resurrection He as the only begotten Son of God became the firstborn Son of God, and through His resurrection His many brothers were brought forth. Also, through His resurrection a new child was born, comprised of Christ and all His believers.

(a) By the Conviction of the Holy Spirit

In resurrection Christ was born as a newborn child to be the firstborn Son of God with His believers to be His many brothers. How does this accomplished fact apply to our experience? According to John 16, it is by the work of the Spirit that we become the many brothers of Christ, the members of Christ. John 16 unveils the two categories of the work of the Spirit: the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the transmission of the Holy Spirit. The first category of the Spirit’s work is to convict the world in the preaching of the gospel and to transfer people out of Adam into Christ (vv. 8-11); the second category of the Spirit’s work is to edify the believers and build [2944] them up by revealing to them the Son with the fullness of the Father (vv. 12-15).

John 16:8-11 reveals that the Spirit works to convict the world—mankind—concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. In verse 8 the Lord says of the Spirit, “When He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment.” Here to convict means to convince, to condemn, to cause people to rebuke themselves. The Spirit always convicts the world concerning the three matters of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Sin entered through Adam (Rom. 5:12), righteousness is the resurrected Christ (1 Cor. 1:30), and judgment is for Satan, who is the author and source of sin (John 8:44). We were born of sin in Adam. The only way to be freed from sin is to believe in Christ, the Son of God. If we believe in Him, He will be righteousness to us, and we shall be justified in Him (Rom. 3:24; 4:25). If we do not repent of the sin in Adam and believe in Christ the Son of God, we shall remain in sin and share the judgment of Satan for eternity (Matt. 25:41).

In John 16:8-11 the convicting work of the Spirit is related to three persons: Adam, Christ, and Satan. We all became fallen in Adam, but we may believe in Christ and be justified. Because Christ was accepted by God in His death, God raised Him up from the dead, and now He becomes righteousness to all who believe in Him. Satan, the source of death, has been judged and destroyed through Christ’s death (Heb. 2:14). The three main items are related to these three persons: sin is related to Adam, righteousness is related to Christ, and judgment is related to Satan. We were born of Adam, but we have believed in Christ and have received Him as our righteousness. However, all those who do not believe in Christ will suffer the judgment of Satan. Because they remain followers of Satan, they will have the same destiny as Satan.

In verse 9 the Lord says that the Spirit would convict the world “concerning sin, because they do not believe into Me.” Here we see that for a person to perish the unique sin is to not believe in the Son (3:16). The sin here is the unwillingness to be transferred from Adam into Christ. If people wish to remain in Adam, it means that they want to remain in the [2945] old realm and not move into the new realm, which is Christ. There is no need for us to commit sin in order to perish. If we simply do not believe in the Lord Jesus, we are already qualified to perish. We may be a gentleman, but as long as we do not believe in the Lord Jesus, we are destined to perish. The unique way to escape from our sinful situation is to believe in the Lord; the unique sin that qualifies us to perish is to not believe in Him. Therefore, the key today is whether we believe or not. If we believe, we shall be transferred out of Adam into Christ. But if we do not believe, we shall perish.

In verse 10 the Lord said that the Spirit would convict the world “concerning righteousness, because I am going to the Father.” This means that the Father has been fully satisfied with the Lord’s redemptive death on the cross and has accepted Him in His resurrection. The proof that the Father is satisfied with Christ’s redemption is that the Father resurrected Him from the dead and exalted Him to His right hand. The resurrection and ascension of Christ are the evidences proving that His redemption has satisfied God and has met all the demands and requirements of God. Therefore, He was released from death to be exalted to the heavens at the right hand of God. Now God’s righteousness is manifested in justifying those who believe in Christ (Rom. 3:26). If sinners will believe in Christ, God will justify them, for Christ Himself will become their righteousness.

We are justified in Christ’s resurrection, as proved by Romans 4:25 and 10:9. Romans 4:25 says, “Who was delivered for our offenses and was raised for our justification,” and 10:9 says, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” According to the Scriptures, we must believe that God has raised Him from the dead, for we may believe that the Lord has died and yet not believe that He was raised from the dead. If we believe that the Lord has been raised from the dead, this surely implies our faith in His death. Everybody believes that the Lord died, but revelation is needed to believe that the Lord has been resurrected. In Him, the resurrected One, we are accepted before God. Furthermore, as the resurrected One, He is also in us to live for [2946] us the life which can be justified by God and which is always acceptable to God. Therefore, Romans 4:25 says that He was raised because of our justification. Justification includes the fact that God has resurrected Christ, accepted Him, and that He has been satisfied with His redemptive death.

In John 16:11 the Lord said that the Spirit would convict the world “concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” We have seen that judgment is related to the devil. Satan, the devil, is the author of sin, the origin of death, the father of all sinners, and the ruler of the world. As such, judgment has been prepared for him. We must recognize that judgment is not for man but for Satan. It is not God’s intention to judge man, because His judgment is for Satan. The lake of fire has been prepared as God’s judgment upon Satan; it was never intended for man. In Matthew 25:41 the Lord said that the King will say to some people, “Go away from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” The eternal fire has been prepared for Satan and his angels—the devil and his followers—not for human beings. But if we refuse to come out of Adam into Christ, we will share the judgment that is for Satan, because we prefer to remain as his followers.

Satan, the ruler of the world, has been judged in the flesh of Christ on the cross (John 12:31-33; 3:14). On the cross the Lord as the Son of Man was lifted up in the form of a serpent (3:14), that is, “in the likeness of the flesh of sin” (Rom. 8:3). Satan, the ruler of this world, as “the ancient serpent” (Rev. 12:9; 20:2) has injected himself into man’s flesh. Through His death on the cross “in the likeness of the flesh of sin,” the Lord has destroyed Satan who is in the flesh (Heb. 2:14). By judging Satan in this way (John 16:11), the world which hung upon Satan was also judged. Hence, the Lord’s being lifted up judged the world and cast out its ruler, Satan.

When the Spirit comes, He convicts unbelievers—fallen sinners—of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Sinners, who are born in Adam, must believe in the resurrected Christ so that they may have Him as their righteousness. If they do not believe, they will be judged by God as Satan is. When the gospel is preached in a proper way, those who hear should [2947] have the desire not to remain in Adam but to be transferred into Christ. These people will then be regenerated and saved. To them the convicting Spirit will become the regenerating Spirit (3:6), the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), and the Spirit of reality, dwelling within them (John 14:17).

The Spirit came to us to convict us of sin, righteousness, and judgment. We repented, believed in the Lord Jesus, and escaped the judgment that is upon Satan. We have been transferred out of Adam into Christ. We have also become children of God and members of Christ. Now we can be filled and saturated with the Triune God who is dispensing Himself into us and mingling Himself with us.

(b) Through the Transmission of the Holy Spirit

It is also through the transmission of the Holy Spirit that we become the many brothers, the members of Christ as the newborn child. As we have seen, the first category of the Spirit’s work is to convict people, that is, to convince sinners to repent, believe, and be regenerated. But the work of the Spirit involves much more than this. The second category of the Spirit’s work is the Holy Spirit’s dwelling in the regenerated believers to reveal Christ, to glorify Christ, and to make Christ real in the believers (16:12-15). This is the building work of the Holy Spirit.

In John 16:13-15 the Lord says, “But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality; for He will not speak from Himself, but what He hears He will speak; and He will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify Me, for He will receive of Mine and will declare it to you. All that the Father has is Mine; for this reason I have said that He receives of Mine and will declare it to you.” According to the context, “the reality” in John 16:13 refers to what the Father has, what the Son has, and what the Spirit receives of the Son and of the Father. What the Father has is a reality, what the Son has is a reality, and what the Spirit receives is also a reality. What the Father has becomes the Son’s, what the Son has is received by the Spirit, and what the Spirit receives is disclosed to us. The Father, the Son, the Spirit, and we, the believers, are all involved in this process. [2948]

The Father, who is the source, the origin, has many riches. All that the Father has becomes the Son’s. The Son has the unsearchable riches (Eph. 3:8). Whatever the Father has is the Son’s, and what the Son has is received by the Spirit. Since what the Spirit receives is disclosed or transmitted to us, we become the destination. The Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is transfigured to be the Spirit, and the Spirit is the reaching of the Divine Trinity to us. All the riches of the Triune God reach us in the Spirit. Therefore, we are the destination of the Triune God. All that the Triune God is and has has been disclosed, conveyed, transmitted, to us. Because we are organically united to the Spirit, that is, organically united to the processed Triune God, whatever He is and has now is our portion as our inheritance.

John 16:13-15 unveils to us the transmission of the Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—into the believers. The Father as the source, the origin, has an abundance of riches. All that the Father has becomes the Son’s. The Son not only has what the Father has; He also has all the riches in His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. All that He has is in addition to what the Father has. All these riches contained in the Son are received by the Spirit, and the Spirit discloses them to us. This disclosing is a transmission of all the riches of what the processed Triune God is and has into our being. Now whatever the processed Triune God is and has is to be our element, our essence, our being. This makes the processed Triune God the very essence of our being. Thus, we all become God-men, the many brothers of Christ.

We must apply the transmission of the Holy Spirit to our experience. Do we have all that the Father has, all that the Son has, and all that the Spirit has received? Has the Spirit disclosed all that the Father has and all that the Son has to us in our experience? Actually, we have received everything that the Triune God is and has, but we have been too veiled to see and experience what we have received. We must know this fact in the Word and know it in our experience. We should realize that all that the Father has is the Son’s, that all that the Son has was received by the Spirit, and that the Spirit [2949] discloses to us what He receives. The Spirit, the Son, and the Father are all ours to possess! Thus, the Triune God is within us for our daily and hourly enjoyment.

(3) For God’s Full Glorification

Christ as the firstborn Son of God and His believers as the many sons of God were born in resurrection to be a newborn child for God’s full glorification. The many brothers of Christ produced by the conviction and transmission of the Holy Spirit are for God’s full glorification (Rom. 8:30b, 17b; Heb. 2:10; 1 Thes. 2:12). In particular, the Holy Spirit’s transmission to the believers of all that the Father and the Son have is the glorifying of the Son with the Father (John 16:13-15). The work of the Spirit is not only to convict the sinners that they might believe in Christ and be transferred out of Adam into Christ; it is also to reveal Christ with the fullness of the Father to all of these transferred believers that they might be built up with all the fullness of the Godhead in order to express the Triune God and to glorify the Son with the Father.

In keeping with John 16, Romans 8 reveals that the purpose of God’s foreknowledge, predestination, and calling is to prepare and produce many brothers for His firstborn Son that they, together with God’s firstborn Son, may be the many sons of God with the divine life and nature for the expression of God (vv. 28-29). In 8:30, Paul declares, “Those whom He predestined, these He also called; and those whom He called, these He also justified; and those whom He justified, these He also glorified.” Glorification is the step in God’s complete salvation in which God will completely saturate our body of sin, which is of death and is mortal (7:24; 8:11; 6:6), with the glory of His life and nature according to the principle of His regenerating our spirit through the Spirit. In this way He will transfigure our body, conforming it to the resurrected, glorious body of His Son (Phil. 3:21). This is the ultimate step in God’s complete salvation, wherein God obtains a full expression, which will ultimately be manifested in the coming age.

Corresponding to John 16 and Romans 8, Hebrews 2:10 shows that the many believers as the many brothers of Christ are for God’s full glorification: “For it was fitting for Him, for [2950] whom are all things and through whom are all things, in leading many sons into glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through suffering.” The many sons here are the many brothers in Romans 8:29. The last step of God’s great salvation is to bring His many sons into glory. Romans 8 tells us that God’s work of grace upon us began with His foreknowing, passed through His predestination, calling, and justification, and will end with His glorification. The glorification of the sons of God will be accomplished by the Lord’s coming back (Phil. 3:21), at which time we will be manifested with Him in glory (Col. 3:4). This is our hope (1:27). This glorification of the sons of God, as the goal of God’s salvation, will last through the millennial kingdom and will be manifested in full for eternity in the New Jerusalem—the ultimate consummation of the new man (Rev. 21:2, 5, 11, 23).

d. The Father’s Glorification

In the foregoing messages, we saw three aspects of Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God: the Father’s house (John 14), the true vine (John 15), and the newborn child (John 16). Christ is the house for God to have a mutual abiding place for His rest, satisfaction, and manifestation. Christ as the vine tree is God’s enlargement for His multiplication, spreading, and glorification. Also, Christ is the new man to carry out God’s eternal economy. In John 17 we come to the fourth aspect of Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God—the Father’s glorification.

The main point of the Lord’s message in John 14 through 16 is that the Son may be glorified so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. The Father is glorified in the Son through the organism of the vine tree. As we have seen, the organism of the vine tree is for the propagating and spreading of life, that is, for the multiplication and reproduction of life, and also for the expression of the Triune God. When the Triune God is propagated, multiplied, and expressed through this organism, the Son is glorified, and in the Son’s glorification the Father is glorified also. Thus, the Lord prayed in John 17 that He, the Son, would be glorified so that the Father also might be glorified.

The Lord’s prayer was fulfilled in three stages. First, it was fulfilled in His resurrection, in that His divine element, [2952] His divine life, was released from within His humanity into His many believers (12:23-24), and His whole being, including His humanity, was brought into glory (Luke 24:26), and in that the Father’s divine element was expressed in His resurrection and glorification. In His resurrection God answered and fulfilled His prayer (Acts 3:13-15). Second, it has been fulfilled in the church, in that as His resurrection life has been expressed through His many members, He has been glorified in them, and the Father has been glorified in Him through the church (Eph. 3:21; 1 Tim. 3:15-16). Third, it will ultimately be fulfilled in the New Jerusalem, in that He will be fully expressed in glory, and God will be glorified in Him through the holy city for eternity (Rev. 21:11, 23-24).

(1) To Be Glorified by the Father that the Father May Be Glorified in Christ

God’s eternal purpose, His ultimate intention, is to manifest, express, Himself. Glorification simply means manifestation. To be glorified is to be manifested and expressed. Just as the electricity hidden in a lamp is glorified when the electricity is manifested in a lamp that is turned on, so God is glorified when He is manifested.

In John 12:28 the Lord prayed, “Father glorify Your name.” To glorify the name of the Father is to cause the Father’s divine element to be released and expressed. The Father’s element, the divine life, which is eternal life, was in the incarnated Son. It was necessary for the shell of the Son’s humanity to be broken through death so that the Father’s element might be released and expressed in resurrection. This is the glorification of God the Father in the Son. The Father is glorified in the Son’s glorification because in this glorification the Father is expressed.

In 13:31-32 the Lord also said, “Now has the Son of Man been glorified, and God has been glorified in Him. If God has been glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and He will glorify Him immediately.” The Father is glorified in the Son. This means that when the Son is glorified, the Father is glorified as well. For the Son of Man to be glorified is for Him to have His divine element released, [2953] expressed, and multiplied through death and resurrection. In this way God the Father is glorified in the Son’s glorification.

After speaking the words recorded in John 13:31 and 32, the Lord Jesus went on to give the lengthy message recorded in John 14 through 16. Actually, this message began in 13:31, which speaks of the glorification of the Son. Both the Lord’s message in chapters fourteen through sixteen and His prayer in chapter seventeen are on the subject of glorification. In His message He spoke concerning glorification, and in His prayer He prayed concerning glorification.

In John 17:1 the Lord Jesus prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You.” Here we see glorification as the subject of the Lord’s prayer in chapter seventeen. The Father is to glorify the Son so that the Son may glorify the Father. This is a mutual glorification between the Son and the Father. If the Father will glorify the Son, then the Son will glorify the Father. Hence, the Son was to be glorified by the Father that the Father may be glorified in Him. Furthermore, for the Lord to be glorified is for Him to be multiplied. This means that the divine life within Him, the Father’s life, would be multiplied and thereby be glorified.

Christ was God incarnate, and His flesh was a tabernacle in which God could dwell on earth (1:14). His divine element was confined in His humanity, just as God’s shekinah glory had been concealed within the tabernacle. Once, on the mountain of transfiguration, His divine element was released from within His flesh and expressed in glory (Matt. 17:1-4). But then it was concealed again in His flesh. Before the prayer recorded in John 17, the Lord indicated that He would be glorified and that the Father would be glorified in Him. The Lord Jesus knew that He would pass through death so that the concealing shell of His humanity might be broken to release His divine element, His divine life. He would also resurrect that He might uplift His humanity into the divine element and that His divine element might be expressed. Then His entire being, both His divinity and His humanity, would be glorified. In this way the Father would be glorified in Him.

In John 17:5 the Lord Jesus went on to say in His prayer, “And now, glorify Me along with Yourself, Father, with the [2954] glory which I had with You before the world was.” This verse reveals that the Son is to be glorified along with the Father. This means that the Son is exactly the same as the Father in glorification. The Son is glorified along with the Father and with the same glory that the Father has. He had the divine glory along with the Father before the world was, in eternity past; hence, He should be glorified now with that glory along with the Father. The Lord participates in the divine glory, not separately by Himself, but along with the Father, for He and the Father are one (10:30).

Before His incarnation Christ as the only begotten Son of God was with the Father in glory and enjoyed this glory with the Father. But when He with this glory put on flesh through incarnation, this glory was concealed in His flesh. His humanity was a shell that covered and confined the divine life and nature, along with the divine glory, that were within Him. The divine glory, the expression of the divine life and nature, was therefore confined and concealed within the Lord’s humanity. Outwardly, He appeared to be a Jew, even a despised Nazarene. That was the appearance of the shell of Christ’s humanity. But within this shell the divine life, nature, and glory were concealed. Through His death and by His work in His resurrection, Christ released the divine life from within Him to produce many grains for His glorification.

(a) Glorified in Resurrection

Christ was glorified by the Father with the divine glory in His resurrection. John 7:39b says, “The Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” Many readers of the Bible might find this verse easier to understand if resurrected were used instead of glorified, for then the verse would say, “The Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been resurrected.” But the verse does not say “had not yet been resurrected”; it says “had not yet been glorified.” However, glorified actually stands for resurrected, for the Lord was glorified when He was resurrected. In Luke 24:26 the Lord said of Himself, “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into His glory?” This refers to His [2955] resurrection (v. 46), which brought Him into glory (1 Cor. 15:43a; Acts 3:13a, 15a). For Christ to enter into His glory, into His glorification, was for Him to enter into His resurrection. This means that He was glorified in His resurrection. His resurrection was His glorification.

According to the New Testament thought, resurrection is a release in life, and this release in life is a matter of glorification. Just before He was about to be crucified, the Lord Jesus prayed not that the Father would resurrect Him but that the Father would glorify Him. The Father answered this prayer for glorification by resurrecting the Lord Jesus (Acts 3:13; Matt. 22:31-32). Glorification is therefore a synonym of resurrection. However, glorification is not for resurrection; rather, resurrection is for glorification. Resurrection is the cause, and glorification is the effect, the result.

(b) The Father’s Glorification in the Body of Christ—the Aggregate of His Believers

We have seen how Christ the Son was glorified in His resurrection. Now by what way will the Son be glorified today so that the Father might be glorified in and through the Son? It is by the church. When the church has been regenerated, sanctified, crucified, and united with Christ in glory, then the Son of God will be expressed and manifested. The Son of God will be glorified in the oneness of the church, and the Father at that time will also be glorified in and through the Son. Therefore, the prayer, “Glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You,” includes and depends upon the matter of the church being regenerated, sanctified, crucified, and united in oneness with the Son of God. God is glorified in Christ and in the church in the church age (Eph. 3:21). If we are not a part of the church, we will miss this glorification.

John was very strong to unveil the glorification of the incarnated Jesus, that is, the glorification of Christ by God with His glory. Christ was not self-glorified by His own exaltation, but He was glorified by God. In His being glorified, He as a grain of wheat passed through death unto resurrection, and that is glorification. His glorification was to produce us as many grains. He is the one grain; we are the many grains. [2956] We as the many grains are the totality, the aggregate, of Christ as the unique grain sown into the earth. When Christ was resurrected, He was glorified to produce us as His many grains to form and constitute His Body.

Glory is the expression of the divine life and the divine nature. If we live by the divine life and nature, we shall express the divine glory. The more the saints live by the divine life and the divine nature, the more glorious the church life is, and the more divine glory there will be in the church. When we live by the divine life with the divine nature, we express the Lord Jesus. This is the Lord’s glorification in us, and in this glorification the Father is glorified.

We can boldly testify of the fact that we all have the Lord Jesus within us. But we probably do not have the boldness to say that the Lord is expressed from within us. This may be because we are so strong in ourselves that the Lord Jesus often does not have a way to be expressed through us. Our self, comparable to marble, is hard and completely opaque, thus completely covering the Lord Jesus. This is the reason we need the Lord’s breaking. Although we may be like marble, the Lord has a way to break us. By the cross He breaks our marble self.

We should have the faith to believe that more and more the Lord will be expressed in us. If we give Him the way to grow in us and to come forth from within us, we shall express Him more and more. Then the churches will be filled with the divine glorification.

Furthermore, when the believers as the branches bear much fruit, the Father is glorified, for in fruit-bearing the Father’s life, the divine life, is expressed. In John 15:8 we see that glorification is in fruit-bearing: “In this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit.” According to 12:24 the one grain fell into the ground and died, rose up, and brought forth many grains. This is multiplication, and this multiplication is glorification. Hence, the many grains of wheat in 12:24 are the many branches of the vine in chapter fifteen. The branches of the vine bear fruit, and this fruit-bearing is the Father’s glorification. The more fruit we bear, the more God is glorified in our Christian work. [2957]

(2) Through the Organic Union of Christ’s Believers with the Father in Christ in Oneness

The Father is glorified through the organic union of Christ’s believers with the Father in the Son in oneness (17:23). In John 15 the fact of our being in Christ and Christ being in us is clearly revealed (vv. 4-5). But in John 17 the Lord prayed for our realization of this fact (vv. 20-21). He prayed so that we would realize that we are in Him just as He is in the Father, and He is in us just as the Father is in Him. With the Divine Trinity there is such a wonderful coinhering oneness. This coinhering oneness has been duplicated by Christ with His believers. Today Christ is in His believers, causing His believers to be in Him. This is like the Father being in the Son, causing the Son to be in the Father. The prayer of Christ in John 17 is a revelation of such a coinhering oneness.

Christ’s prayer was for the glorification of the Son that the Father might be glorified as the Son glorified the Father in His earthly living and ministry (vv. 1b, 4-5). This traffic of glorification, where the Son prayed asking the Father to glorify the Son that the Son may glorify the Father, is based on the believers’ oneness (vv. 2-3, 6-23a). If we are not one, the Son cannot be glorified, and the Father cannot be glorified by the Son. When we are one, Christ is glorified. When Christ is glorified, God the Father is glorified in Christ the Son’s glorification.

The oneness of the believers is by the Father’s eternal life conveyed in the Father’s name and in the Father’s word (vv. 2-3, 6-12). Our oneness is also by the Father’s sanctifying word as the truth—the divine reality—through the coinhering of the Triune God and the believers (vv. 13-21). The sanctifying God is in us, and we are in the sanctifying God; therefore, we are spontaneously sanctified.

The oneness of the believers is also by the glory given to the believers by Christ the Son through the coinhering of the Triune God incorporated with the believers. In John 17:22-23 the Son prayed to the Father: “And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one.” The believers can be one as the three of the [2958] Trinity are one. The Father, the Son, the Spirit, and the disciples all coinhere. This is the glory. In this coinhering, Christ is glorified, and the Father is glorified.

The oneness revealed in chapter seventeen is for the Father’s glorification in the Son. This oneness is actually the divine glorification. The Son is glorified in the church, and the Father is glorified in the Son. In chapters fourteen through seventeen we see five main things: the Father’s house, the vine, the new man, the divine glorification, and the oneness. Actually, all of these five things are one. This is the unique subject of the Lord’s message in chapters fourteen through sixteen, and it is the main point of His prayer in chapter seventeen. The oneness is the glorification, the glorification is the new man, the new man is the vine, and the vine is the Father’s house. The glorification for which the Lord prayed is actually the divine mingling with humanity, and this mingling is the marvelous oneness revealed in chapter seventeen. This oneness is safeguarded in the name of the Father, in the Triune God, and in the glorious expression of the Triune God. This is the central point of the revelation of the New Testament.

In John 17 the Lord prayed that the Father would glorify the Son so that the Son might glorify Him. To glorify the Son is actually to build the Father’s house. Hence, glorification is the building. Furthermore, the building is the cultivation of the vine. The vine tree comes into being through the birth of the new man. When the new man was born, the vine with all its branches came into being. Now the vine is growing and spreading, and this spreading is the divine glorification. Therefore, the glorification of the Son is for the glorification of the Father, and the glorification is the building of the Father’s house, the spreading of the vine, and the growth is the new man.

In the divine glorification the Triune God is glorified in humanity, and humanity is glorified in divinity. One day the Lord Jesus will come in a physical manifestation of glory, and we shall be brought into that glory. Then there will be glorification upon glorification and glorification within glorification. Eventually, there will be the ultimate consummation—the [2959] New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:10-11). The New Jerusalem will be the completion of the new man, the consummation of the vine, and the full building of the Father’s house. May we all see that the Father’s house, the vine, the new man, and the glorification are all one thing—Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God for our experience and enjoyment.